Post by pmo125 on Jun 18, 2012 22:56:26 GMT -5

This thread is for the Inforoo NFL Pick 'Em competition. The league has been setup on Yahoo. Registration will remain open indefinitely. If you would like to register to play, PM me. There is a fee of $10 to enter. Once I know you are interested in competing I will PM you the E-mail address associated with my paypal account. Once i have your entrance fee, I will PM you the link to the league along with the League ID and Password. This is a confidence point pick 'em pool. Here is a quick generalization of rules in a confidence pick 'em pool, if you are unfamiliar.

No contestant can win more than 1 prize, so if a contestant qualifies for more than one prize, they will receive the highest prize they qualify for, and the remaining prizes will go to the next contestant who qualifies.

Thanks for playing everyone! I am super excited about how successful this inaugural year has been, and definitely plan on not only continuing it next year, but expanding it to other sports. So look out for the March Madness Pool, where we will be playing for another ticket to Bonnaroo 2013!!!!

Post by popsicle sarah on Jun 19, 2012 17:42:50 GMT -5

I might be up for this, almost won our league last year. Came down to the Superbowl. Anyways, I have some questions/concerns... (if you don't want input you can just tell me to butt out lol).

Why don't you just do a league through Yahoo (or something similar) like last year? You can set the rules to play against the spread, straight up, and with or without confidence points and it'll do all the work for you. Plus that will give everyone a chance to make last minute changes. Having to have picks in by 10pm the day before the first game makes me a bit leery. That means picks have to be done by Wednesday at 10pm. Practices, press conferences, and injury reports aren't even usually ramped up by Wednesday night for the Sunday ahead.

Post by cdevaney on Jun 19, 2012 20:00:52 GMT -5

I might be in. I'm with Popsicle with my wariness about the cutoff but my main concern is that you forfeit the season if your picks aren't in on time. I get not having your picks count for the week but the whole season seems harsh. Sometimes life just happens - cable/internet service goes down, people get called into work unexpectedly, brains stop working properly, etc. You're already losing a week's worth of points, that seems fair. Is there some sort of reason for that? Maybe I'm just not seeing the big picture implications.

Post by popsicle sarah on Jun 19, 2012 20:34:21 GMT -5

I agree with that too. One of the reasons I did so well last season is I never missed making my picks for the week... except for a Thursday game or two. I don't think there was anyone that didn't miss at least a couple Thursday games or even half of the Sunday games. If we played with the rules as they are now, everyone last year would've been disqualified and it means that most likely the winner of this would be the person who gets their picks in on time every week.

Post by popsicle sarah on Jun 19, 2012 20:40:18 GMT -5

Oh and I don't want you to think that I think this is a bad idea, pmo. I LOVE the idea of throwing in on a pool for a ticket. +1 to you for coming up with it. I hope you decide to move the contest to a website rather than do all the calculating yourself. That is a ton of work!

Post by pmo125 on Jun 19, 2012 22:09:41 GMT -5

I might be up for this, almost won our league last year. Came down to the Superbowl. Anyways, I have some questions/concerns... (if you don't want input you can just tell me to butt out lol).

Why don't you just do a league through Yahoo (or something similar) like last year? You can set the rules to play against the spread, straight up, and with or without confidence points and it'll do all the work for you. Plus that will give everyone a chance to make last minute changes. Having to have picks in by 10pm the day before the first game makes me a bit leery. That means picks have to be done by Wednesday at 10pm. Practices, press conferences, and injury reports aren't even usually ramped up by Wednesday night for the Sunday ahead.

To be honest the thought had never occurred to me. Usually the Pick Em leagues i organize at work or with friends i just do myself. In this situation though, I do agree it would be a lot more convenient for everyone. I will probably set the league up on yahoo. The only concern I have is making sure no one signs up for the league that isn't serious about it, and won't pay their share. I think what I will have to do is determine those that are serious, and once a payment is received, send them the link to the league.

I might be in. I'm with Popsicle with my wariness about the cutoff but my main concern is that you forfeit the season if your picks aren't in on time. I get not having your picks count for the week but the whole season seems harsh. Sometimes life just happens - cable/internet service goes down, people get called into work unexpectedly, brains stop working properly, etc. You're already losing a week's worth of points, that seems fair. Is there some sort of reason for that? Maybe I'm just not seeing the big picture implications.

When I first came up with that, I guess I thought it would be a deterrent to those who aren't serious. In retrospective though, you are probably right. It is a little harsh to anyone who has put up their money and then just had something come up. I'm just concerned about people saying they are in, and then losing interest and not keeping up their part of the bargain. I'm not so much worried about people who have been on this board a while (pop sarah, cdevaney, flanzo, etc.) but the new-comers who want to play. I don't want to keep anyone from playing who wants to play, but I want to ensure those who commit, commit fully.

Say 12 people tell me they are in, and then I come to everyone and say their fee is $20. Then it becomes apparent a couple weeks in, that 2 of the 12 aren't going to pay, the last thing i want to do is come back to those who have sent a payment and tell them to pay more. So, i've already decided that if something like that happens, I will put up the missing shares. I'm just trying to avoid that from happening.

So, I will do away with that rule because you do make a very good point about it.

I will put you guys in for now and hope that you decide to play. Thanks for your inputs.

Post by pmo125 on Jun 19, 2012 22:21:58 GMT -5

Another thing I am thinking about doing is just having a flat fee for everyone, and then if exceeds the amount of money for the ticket, giving the remainder to second place in the form of a gift card or something like that. What do you guys think of that?

Also to those reading the thread and saying to themselves, ”I don't know anything about football so I am not interested.” You don't need to be an expert at all. It's a fun way of competing and a chance to spend very little money on a ticket for bonnaroo. Even if you know absolutely nothing, you have just as good of a chance as everyone else. Their are plenty of places you can go to see what experts are saying, and just follow their lead. So please, give it a shot.

Post by popsicle sarah on Jun 19, 2012 22:54:09 GMT -5

I think a flat fee is a good idea. If you set it pretty low (say $5-10), it will probably entice more people to join... which in return will make the "pot" much higher, which could turn into more than one ticket? Having a set price will make more people feel comfortable instead of the buy-in depending on the # of sign-ups. We've gotta few months before this starts to get the word out.

And I think it is a good idea to not give anyone the password to the league on yahoo until they pay their entrance fee. If someone pays to get in, they are more likely to continue to participate... and if they stop participating, it's their loss.

I'll go ahead and throw it out there that if we don't get enough $ to pay for a full ticket, I'll kick in the difference.

Post by pmo125 on Jun 20, 2012 9:41:21 GMT -5

So, thanks to popsicle sarah and cdevaney there have been some rule changes. I will set up the league on a site instead of doing all the work here on inforoo. Also instead of the fee to compete being determined by how many players there are, we will have a one-time flat fee payment of $10. Once i receive your payment, i will send you the link to the website. I have not set up the league yet, so once i do, i will notify the contestants via pm and at that time will start accepting payments for entry.

Since we are doing a flat fee, if we get enough contestants to exceed the price of the ticket, the extra money will go to 2nd place in the form of a gift card or something along those lines.

Post by on Jun 20, 2012 20:39:34 GMT -5

Sounds cool to me. To ensure that everyone is "all in" and not nibbling around the edges, I'm assuming that the entry fee should be paid prior to week one?

I would like to emphasize this suggestion. There is no reason why participants can't pay the $10-$20 in advance of the season. It is also the only way to ensure that people don't flake after the season starts (or at least the only way someone flaking won't ruin the league).

I'm ready to submit my fee, so let me know when you have the whole Yahoo thing set up.

Post by pmo125 on Jun 20, 2012 21:01:26 GMT -5

I'm just glad that there are others who have the interest to pull this off.

And cdevaney, yes, payment will come before week one. I will probably give it a couple more weeks to see if we can gain some more interest, and then start collecting the fee at the beginning of the pre-season.